Today, 13 September 2017, Piet Holtrop and Jorge Andrey of HOLTROP SLP Transaction and Business Law, appeared at the European Commission in Brussels on behalf of PX1NME. The purpose of the trip was to meet with the Commission’s General Directorate for Competition and discuss the evolution of the CTCs dossier; a dossier on the claim we presented in 2015 and that since then the General Directorate’s legal department has been analyzing.

It was a complex meeting dominated by highly technical content. We have found points of agreement with the General Directorate, above all with respect to the excessive complexity of the regulations relevant to the Spanish electrical sector and the lack of clarity in its costs structure. This latter point is what has resulted in the difficulties experienced in determining the appropriate remuneration for CTCs. The lack of clarity has also derived from the confusing process through which the CTC concept was created and modified.

We were able to reach a consensus with the Director General regarding the current points of difference that the Commission has with PX1NME, and we agreed that it will be necessary to provide further information: above all, with respect to the quantifying and ownership of CTCs, and consequentially the final magnitude of CTCs, which will ultimately determine the question of whether or not there has been an overpayment.

The Commission has invited us to provide further clarifications regarding these points and to continue in our work to untangle to electrical system in Spain. The Commission also emphasized the importance of organizations such as PX1NME regarding the provision of information to the Commission; if it weren’t for these entities, the Commission would not have a full picture of the situation given the high visibility of national administrations and established lobby groups.

We thanked the Commission for their invitation and work, and we have assured them that we will not cease until we have managed to clarify the opaque accounting used in the Spanish electrical system. At the same time, we emphasized the importance of undertaking a full audit of the electrical system, as was recommended previously by Commissioner Oettinger.

A team from the law firm HOLTROP S.L.P., volunteer lawyers for the Platform for a New Energy Model, has travelled to Brussels to file a complaint against Spain with the European Commission for breach of European Law by the new electricity reform which drastically cuts the retribution to renewables and puts many renewable producers on the brink of insolvency.

To this end HOLTROP S.L.P. has met with the Directorate General for Energy of the European Commission to inform about the current situation of the sector in Spain. The purpose of this complaint, the fifth from a series of six, for the time being, is to prompt the European Commission to start an infringement procedures against Spain, considering that Royal Decree-Law 9/2013, Law 24/2013 and Royal Decree 413/2014 clash with the Renewables Directive, the Emissions Directive, free movement of capitals and the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations.

This action complements several procedures started by HOLTROP S.L.P. before Spanish national courts, although invoking European law, for the more than 1500 producers they represent. In these proceedings, they ask for a preliminary ruling with the objective that the Court of Justice of the European Union decides whether cutbacks to renewables are in compliance with EU Law. A European Commission decision to start a procedure would render it very difficult for national courts to deny preliminary rulings.

In the coming months, HOLTROP S.L.P. will return to Brussels for the Platform to complement this complaint with the Ministerial Order of Retributive Parameters to be approved soon, and follow up on the actions of the European Commission.

With the new design of our website comes this new press section. We have done this to reflect the impact which our work is having in the medio, traditional and online. This section will have two sub-sections, one in which we publish what the media say about us, and another one in which we say what we would like to tell the media.